The initial segment strategy: A heuristic for route selection

Abstract

People often choose one route when traveling from point A to point B and a different route when traveling from point B to point A. To explain these route asymmetries, we propose that people rely on a heuristic (the initial segment strategy, or ISS) during route planning. This heuristic involves basing decisions disproportionately on the straightness of the initial segments of the routes. Asymmetries arise because the characteristics that favor selection of a particular route in one direction will usually differ from those that favor selection when traveling in the opposite direction. Results from five experiments supported these claims. In the first three experiments, we found that subjects' decisions were asymmetric and involved a preference for initially straight routes. In Experiment 4, we confirmed that the ISS is a heuristic by demonstrating that people rely on it more when under time pressure. However, people can choose the optimal route when instructed to do so. In Experiment 5, we generalized the findings by having subjects select routes on maps of college campuses. Taken together, the results indicate that the ISS can account for asymmetries in route choices on both real and artificial maps.

Where is my car? Examining wayfinding behavior in a parking lot

“…However, unlike these works, the predominant factor behind this difference might be not related to the way in which people perceive distance (and therefore act) accordingly, as proposed by Conroy-Dalton (2003) and Bailenson, Shum and Uttal (2000), but to the fact that people seem to have problems in recalling the location of their vehicles due to the homogeneous and featureless nature of parking lots.…”

Gaze behaviour during space perception and spatial decision making

“…This suggests that participants' gaze behavior reflects the significance of long lines of sight for their path choices. While related strategies have been demonstrated in other navigation and route selection studies (e.g., Golledge, 1995;Bailenson, Shum, & Uttal, 2000;Conroy Dalton, 2003), it remains unclear why participants chose the option with the longest line of sight. A possible explanation is that this path option promises greater information gain when traveling along than the alternative (Zetzsche et al, 2009).…”

Single-destination navigation in a multiple-destination environment: a new “later-destination attractor” bias in route choice

“…The results of previous single-destination studies also showed that navigators prefer those routes that begin in the direction of their goal (Golledge, 1995). This least-angle bias has been demonstrated for route choices in small-scale environments (e.g., Bailenson et al, 1998Bailenson et al, , 2000 and in large-scale environments (e.g., Dalton, 2003). The current results are important because they confirm that there may be a common mechanism for route preferences regardless of the size of the space (e.g., Hicheur, Pham, Arechavaleta, Laumond, & Berthoz, 2007;Waller & Nadel, 2013); in this case, the common mechanism is the least-angle bias.…”

“…Participants tend to choose a path that has a long initial segment or the fewest turns (Bailenson, Shum, & Uttal, 1998, Bailenson, Shum, & Uttal, 2000Christenfeld, 1995), and, most often, deviate the least from a straight line from start to destination (least angle; Hochmair & Karlsson, 2005). In each case, participants seem to prefer the routes that require the least cognitive effort, even if the path is longer in the end (Wiener, Ehbauer, & Mallot, 2009).…”